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Monday, August 13, 2012

Rapid Fire French Light Tank Battalion

I've just been doing a bit of back-of-the-envelope RF! figuring to stick together a battalion of French Renault FT tanks mostly just because I like the HaT kits. So without further ado:

French Light Tank Battalion 1918, for Rapid FireBn HQ:

1 Radio Tank*

3 Companies, with:

2 Gun Tanks and 1 MG Tank

Battalion Reserve:

5 MG Tanks **

*May replace with Gun Tank as the Radio Tanks did not seem to last very long!

** If desired, add an extra MG Tank to each Company. An earlier organisation decentralised the reserve to the company level.
This organisation represents a full strength battalion. Attrition rates were high due to mechanical and terrain issues. It was not unisual for a Battalion to lose 50% of it's strength within a day or so of going into action. In this case, replace two companies' complement with MG Tanks and delete the

Reserve Company.

Source is Zaloga's book on WW1 French tanks. The errors of interpretation remain entirely my own!
Queries criticisms or comments?